if you are looking at a bag, i ordered 2 bags, and here are my thoughts.
1) Skooba Messenger:
Skooba Design
I paid 37 dollars for it on
Amazon.com. It looks like a small messenger bag, so looks less like a man-purse. (it is smaller than it appears in the stock image) It has a lot of neat design features:
- there's a zipper on the top of the bag that gives you access to the main compartment without having to lift the flap
- there's a buckle AND a velcro patch that secures the flap. (i like this because sometimes if i am going to be lifting up the flap a lot, it's nice to not have to always secure the buckle)
- the ipad-holding portion is just a slim, padded pocket within the main compartment that fits it snugly.
2) STM Scout XS (radtech.us, amzn.to/bQLFGy):
i paid 50 dollars for it on
Amazon.com. It is vertically-oriented, so might come off as more of a man-purse. the nice thing about it, though, is that it is pretty small.
- the main compartment is the sole area where you'd put your ipad, and it's a bit wide (approx 2 inches). it's much thicker than you'd need for just the ipad, so you'd end up putting other things next to your ipad.
- it's main advantage is its small size. i could see myself carrying it around for extended periods of time.
- smell: this one is a bit interesting. both of its reviews at
amazon mention a horrible fishy odor. mine also has that same odor which i haven't been able to completely get rid of so far. i asked for a replacement from
amazon, but that one also has the horrible odor). Radtech is the official reseller of STM in the USA, so you might get a non-malodorous bag through Radtech.
overall, i like both bags. they are both pleasantly small, although the skooba is about 3-4 inches wider (giving it a horizontal messenger bag appearance). as you can tell, i like the skooba bag better, but it's just a tad bigger. i think i'm going to keep the STM Scout for instances where i'll be wearing it for longer periods, but i wish the main compartment was more efficiently spaced for an ipad (it seems more designed for a thick netbook) and it didn't have that horrible smell. (I contacted STM to see if they had any comment. i'll pass any info i receive along to this post)
other bags i was considering was the Booq Taipan Shadow XS, but never ordered it due to price).
